Takeout

20 Fast Food Apps That Help You Score Free Food

Ashley Eneriz — Tue, 24 Apr 2018 08:00:07 +0000

Fast food apps are increasing in popularity. Not only can they save you time, and help you avoid the hungry crowd with mobile ordering, but they can also save you money. Sure, fast food is known for being affordable, but fast food apps can actually help you score free food. And who doesn't love free food?

Of course, the best way to save money on fast food is to avoid it altogether and cook all your meals at home, but we live in the real world of unexpected traffic and busy schedules, and sometimes you need to grab something quickly. All of these apps allow you to order ahead of time to skip the line when you pick up your food and offer rewards for discounts and freebies. Bonus!

Here are our favorite 20 fast food apps and the delicious perks that come with them.

1. BJ's Brewhouse

My local BJ's always has a wait of about 30-40 minutes on weekend nights. Luckily, with the app you can put your name on the waitlist before heading to the restaurant and cut down on wait times. The app also rewards members with a free mini pizookie (a pie and cookie hybrid, usually served with ice cream) when they sign up, and orders earn members one point for every dollar spent. Once you have earned 100 points, you will receive a $10 off coupon good for 90 days.

2. Burger King

The Burger King app promises $30 worth of food coupons once you sign up, but in reality, it's BOGO free coupons and other discounted meals. You can also connect your PayPal account to the app for faster payment.

3. Café Rio

The Café Rio app rewards users $10 credit for every 100 points they earn. Usually, you will earn one point for every dollar spent, but many times the app will also reward double points. And your rewards don't expire.

4. Chick-fil-A

I love the Chick-fil-A One app because it's always rewarding me with a free food item. Sometimes it's an ice cream cone, other times it's a salad. The app will also give you rewards for using the app to pay for food directly.

And if you haven't used the cow calendar yet, you are missing out. Each year in November, Chick-fil-A restaurants sell $8 calendars that come with cards that have a free food item each month. This card connects to your app, making it simple to redeem your free food item of the month. Didn't grab a calendar in time? Check out eBay. (See also: 6 Ways to Score Free Food at Chick-fil-A)

5. Chronic Taco

Chronic Taco adds 50 points to your account right when you sign up. You will also earn one point for every dollar spent at the restaurant. Just 25 points can be redeemed for an order of churro bites, 50 points for a taco, or 100 points for any menu item.

6. Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf

The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf app offers a free coffee or tea at sign-up. The app also gives app users a free birthday treat and reward points for every purchase you make (a point for every dollar spent). Redeem points toward free drinks and food items. You'll even unlock certain freebie levels (Purple, Platinum, and VIP) with regular use.

7. El Pollo Loco

Earn $10 of free food through the LOCO Rewards every time you earn 100 points by scanning the app, either at the drive-thru window or ordering through the app. You also score a free entree worth up to $7 at sign-up. Each dollar you spend at El Pollo Loco is worth one point, and soon, you will be able to load gift cards straight to the app.

8. Firehouse Subs

As soon as you sign up for the Firehouse Subs app and reward program, you will earn a free large drink, and then a free sub on your birthday. You will also earn one point for every $0.01 you spend, which can be redeemed for free subs and salads.

9. Jack in the Box

The Jack in the Box app offers special in-app offers like two free tacos with any purchase or 10 percent off your order. You can also save your favorite order for quick and easy one-tap ordering.

10. Jamba Juice

Jamba Juice gives new users $3 off your order once you activate your account. You'll also earn a free treat for your birthday, and a $3 reward for every 35 points you earn.

11. Krispy Kreme

Did someone say free doughnuts? Sign up for the Krispy Kreme app to receive a free Original Glazed doughnut upon registration and on your birthday. You can also earn free boxes of doughnuts and beverages after so many purchases, which is a nice bonus if you're in charge of snacks for your office or child's school.

12. McDonald's

Compared to other fast food chains, McDonald's offers coupons and rewards on their app that are quite decent for lovers of fast food or those who find themselves in a dinnertime pinch. The app gives you instant access to food coupons, like $2 off a Signature Crafted sandwich through mobile order and pay, or free fries with any purchase on Fridays.

Additionally, McDonald's also offers McCafe rewards, which allows you to earn a free McCafe drink after purchasing five — no size limits.

13. Panera Bread

MyPanera Rewards gives members rewards for three things: for their birthdays, for spending, and just because. There have been months when the app rewarded me a free coffee or a free bagel for every day of the month — no additional purchase necessary. I also like that the app rewards a free food reward after so many visits, not based on how much money I spent.

14. Pick Up Stix

Every dollar you spend at Pick Up Stix will earn you one "Fortune." After you earn 100 Fortunes, you can redeem them for a free entree. Sign up for the app through Facebook to receive free Fortunes.

15. PizzaRev

PizzaRev fans can earn one point for every dollar spent through the app. Once you earn 100 points, you can redeem them for a free pizza or entree salad. Rev Rewards members also receive free treats on their birthday.

16. Starbucks

With the Starbucks app, you earn two stars for every $1 spent, and a free drink or food item for your birthday. You also get a free drink or food item for every 125 stars you earn. They will often offer reward promotions for buying certain beverages, as well. (See also: 7 Starbucks Savings Hacks That Actually Work)

17. Sonic

With the Sonic app, you instantly get a free slush reward at sign-up. And new offers are applied to your Sonic app account each month. Also, every month features a deal for a $1.99 Wacky Pack, which is a Sonic's kid's meal. Other deals are usually for half-off blasts, shakes, or floats. (See also: Best Kids Eat Free Restaurants)

18. Subway

Eat fresh and earn tokens for every purchase you make at Subway. Earn 100 tokens, and you will be rewarded with a $2 off coupon. You will also earn bonus surprises, such as a free cookie on your birthday. This app also has surprise deals that can be redeemed through your phone.

19. Whataburger

The Whataburger app rewards you based off visits rather than the amount of money you spend. If you use the app on five separate visits, you will have your choice of a free honey butter chicken biscuit, medium French fry, taquito, cinnamon roll, or a small shake on your next visit.

20. Yogurtland

Sign up for Yogurtland’s Real Rewards program to earn an initial free three-ounces for registering and another free three-ounces on your birthday. You earn a point for every ounce purchased. Yogurtland’s reward program is tiered (Green, Raspberry, and Platinum), so once you earn 60 points, you can move from Green to Raspberry and earn three-ounces free for every 36 points earned.

How to save even more with fast food apps

Obviously these apps were created to get you to spend money on fast food in order to score free food, but here are three ways you can spend less and still get rewards.

Buy discounted gift cards

Look for discounted gift cards on eBay and other reputable gift card sites to save a small percentage on your fast food budget. Load that card to your account and earn points through the app. Warehouse clubs, like Costco, also offer discounted cards to Jamba Juice regularly.

Take advantage of gift card promos

Sometimes these restaurants will offer a deal like, "Buy $X worth of gift cards get a meal or drink for free." You can buy the gift cards to get the free item in one transaction and then load the gift cards on the app in order to keep earning rewards without spending more money to do so.

Do separate transactions to use more coupons

You usually can't combine coupons in a single transaction, but luckily, several fast food places are fine with you having separate transactions in order to take advantage of more than one coupon.

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This article is from Ashley Eneriz of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

6 Ways Workaholism Is Costing You Money

Andrea Karim — Thu, 25 Jan 2018 09:00:08 +0000

Putting in long hours on the job doesn't have to be a bad thing. If you truly love what you do for a living, working at it passionately can help advance your career, build an important business, help others succeed, and even make you happy.

But there's a line every worker can cross when burning the midnight oil starts to wreak havoc on their finances. These are some of the ways working too much can be a problem for your money.

1. You probably overpay for last-minute meals

When you work nonstop, eating is often an afterthought — which is why you end up shelling out extra money for things that you don't have time to fix for yourself, like takeout food and drinks. These quick bites add up fast. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American household spent $3,008 on restaurant and takeout meals in 2015. If you had more time in your schedule to pack a lunch from home, imagine how much money you could be keeping in your pocket. (See also: How to Stop the Takeout Meal Cycle and Save)

2. Your medical costs can increase

Patients with one or more chronic conditions account for 86 percent of health care spending by American citizens, their insurance companies, and government programs. As of 2017, U.S. total annual health care costs topped $3.4 trillion.

You're wondering what this has to do with you? Well, if you're putting in too many hours behind a desk, chances are you're also guilty of some seriously unhealthy habits: not sleeping enough, drinking too much coffee, eating irregularly, and not exercising, just to name a few. When these habits are compounded over time, it can set you up for any number of chronic health issues that aren't cheap to manage.

From obesity, to diabetes, to heart disease, sacrificing your health for your job is almost guaranteed to empty your wallet. According to eHealthInsurance.com, in 2016 the average annual deductible for unsubsidized individual health insurance plans was $4,358, and the average deductible for family plans was $7,983. Once you've managed to develop a chronic condition, you're more likely to have to hit that deductible earlier in the year. (See also: How to Handle a Massive Medical Bill)

3. Your family life can crumble

It seems obvious that people who work too much have less time to spend with their families. But if your job is ruining your marriage and affecting your relationship with your kids, I'll let you in on a secret — divorce isn't cheap.

Don't believe me? Sure, it's possible to have an amicable, uncontested divorce where both parties agree on everything. But the average divorce in the United States costs between $15,000 and $20,000. Most divorce spending is attributed to attorney's fees, but you'll also encounter court fees, costs related to real estate divisions, education fees (parental education is required in some states), and costs of neutral evaluations.

That's not even counting the additional cost of housing that you'll face once split, or child care. Child care can be a significant expense, although costs vary greatly depending on where you live.

4. You eat unreimbursed business costs

From travel expenses to at-home office costs, anything that isn't reimbursed by your employer, or written off on your taxes, is a loss.

Did you upgrade to business-level internet services at home to ensure that you're never without high-speed connectivity? That's a business cost. Do you need an expensive mobile data and voice plan to keep pace with work demands? That's a loss unless your business is covering it. How much of your driving is related to business (outside of a regular daily commute)? Documents? Website costs? These expenses aren't cheap, and they add up quickly.

5. Your career may stall if you can't delegate (or finish anything)

What's the point of working your butt off if you aren't making any career advancement? Some people have a tendency to tackle all the work themselves, partly because they don't know how to say no, and partly because working is in some ways an addiction.

The problems arise when you hope to climb the corporate ladder. A good manager knows how and when to delegate, how to support a team, and how much pressure is enough to get the best work from underlings. A manager who can't properly delegate tasks and manage time can alienate coworkers (who don't get a chance to pitch in on important projects) and people who report to them (who feel the need to suffer under mountains of work in order to keep up appearances).

Even though it may seem like doing everything yourself is better for your career, it's often the opposite. If your insistence on being The One prevents you from getting promoted and moving into a higher-paying position, your tendencies to overwork are hurting your earning potential, not helping it. (See also: 12 Ways to Finally Get That Promotion This Year)

6. You have to outsource everything else

Delegating tasks at work is one thing — that's part of ensuring that all work is done on time and ensures even distribution of labor. But what about your unpaid work — the work of maintaining everything else around you? Are you paying someone else to:

Do your laundry?
Clean your house?
Mow your lawn?
Care for your children?
Vacuum your car?
Run errands?

If so, this is costing you big-time. There are some home-related tasks that should be done by professionals (electrical work comes to mind), and if you really hate mowing the lawn or vacuuming, it's fine to pay someone else to do it if you can afford it. But if you're outsourcing every single task around the house because you're never home or free to do them yourself, you're throwing hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars away per year.

Evaluate your work-life balance

Every few months, take a good hard look at the hours you spend and whether you are devoting enough time to the nonwork parts of your life. There's no magic number that fits for everyone. You have to decide what works for you and your loved ones. But do check in regularly, to evaluate your goals and consider your priorities. (See also: 9 Signs Your Work-Life Balance Is Off)

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This article is from Andrea Karim of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

7 Signs Your Takeout Habit Has Gone Too Far

Carrie Kirby — Thu, 30 Mar 2017 08:00:14 +0000

Takeout. Delivery. The very words get my stomach growling. The promise of a tasty dinner with no prep work and no dishes to wash — not to mention a meal where family members all get to choose their own dishes — is so tantalizing that I would order out every night if I could afford it. And apps and websites such as DoorDash, GrubHub, UberEats, Seamless, and Foodler make succumbing to temptation even easier.

Can you afford all this takeout and delivery, though? Probably not, because even if you're rolling in cash, eating restaurant food every night can take its toll on your health and your cooking skills — and especially your budget.

So, is it time to delete those food delivery apps from your phone? If more than three of these sounds like you, the answer is a double yes with extra cheese. (See also: All the Modern Ways You Can Order Pizza)

1. Deliveries have turned your home into a traffic hot spot

You keep having to change the batteries in your doorbell. The city put a five-minute loading zone at the curb in front of your house. Single neighbors who can't hit the delivery minimum on their own frequently piggyback on your orders. And the first time they told you they couldn't meet the delivery minimum, you were utterly baffled as to what that struggle must feel like since it's never been a problem for you.

2. Takeout containers are piling up

Your kids are able to make three-bedroom igloos in the backyard out of white Styrofoam containers. Your building has a sign in the hallway forbidding pizza boxes in the trash chute, and it mentions you by name. You have come up with 10,000 uses for spare wooden chopsticks and have dedicated kitchen drawers for condiment packets and plastic cutlery. Instead of a tablecloth, your dining room table is protected by a thick, cushiony layer of receipts. And your kids bring their lunches to school in large white or brown bags with your address scribbled on them in Sharpie.

3. You know the delivery drivers too well

You know to never order sushi on a Tuesday because that driver lets the dipping sauce slosh all over the tempura. When you went two weeks without ordering, the DoorDash driver stopped by to check on you. You're so tight with the drivers that they stop by your house between deliveries to use your bathroom or play a quick game of cribbage.

4. Your addiction has changed your relationship with technology

Your phone is so full of restaurant phone numbers that you have accidentally ordered at least three kinds of cuisine with your butt. When your phone rings, you immediately open your front door. (This is why you always sound disappointed if it's a friend calling.) Your mother spoofed her number to appear as Gary's Gyros on your caller ID, just so you'll take her calls.

5. You find yourself going to great lengths to maintain the thrill that drew you to takeout to begin with

You keep a stash of foreign currency so you can tip natively for each ethnic cuisine. (The drivers hate you for this.) When a new takeout place opens in town, you ferret out their phone number before they open for business so you can place the first order.

6. You have forgotten the food gathering skills you'd need to survive in the wild

You just found out that your oven doesn't work — and you've been living in your home for 12 years. Last time you were in a grocery store, Nestle Quik was still sold in a metal can.

7. You and your family are way too good at ordering takeout

You just ordered a No. 4, a No. 17, and a double order of No. 23 — without consulting the menu. Your baby's first words were, "extra spicy." Ordering online takes less than 10 seconds because your favorite meal is already saved for every area restaurant.

Have you gone too far?

If you recognized yourself in any three of the above — seek help. At the least seek out some frugal dining advice that's only a click away:

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This article is from Carrie Kirby of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

9 Ways Restaurant Menus Are Designed to Make You Spend More

Kyle James — Fri, 24 Feb 2017 10:30:37 +0000

There is no arguing the fact that dining out on a regular basis can bust any budget. But if you understand restaurant menus, and how they're designed to trick you into opening your wallets wide, you can dine wisely and save money. Here are nine sneaky restaurant menu tactics along with some smart ways to fight back. (See also: 13 Overpriced Restaurant Items That Waste Your Money)

1. First Item on Menu Trick

Typically the first item in each meal category is the restaurant's "anchor item," which is where they make their biggest profit. This could be pasta, seafood, salad, or more a generic category like "Entrees" or "Appetizers." Because the first item listed typically gets ordered more often than any other item in the category, it's going to usually be one of these anchor items. Buyer beware. Make sure to look through the entire list before you decide on what to order.

2. Menu "Boxes" Everywhere

Restaurants like to put meal categories in fancy boxes in different spots on their menus. It could be their steak dishes or maybe seafood dishes, but the one thing they have in common is they grab your attention and tend to make you more price insensitive. They want these boxes to grab your attention because typically their profit margin on these meals is the highest. To fight back, you'll want to ignore the boxes, avoid temptation, and stick to the meals in your budget.

3. Pricing Ending with .99 or .95

This is the old retail trick of having the price end just below a round number. Our eyes and brain are trained to read from left to right so the first number in the price is what we use to determine the overall value. A burrito selling for $7.95 just looks cheaper than one selling for $8.00. To fight back, just round the number up in your head, then decide if the price is reasonable.

4. Fancy Words

Restaurant menus are riddled with fancy words like "juicy," "creamy," "deep smoky flavor," and the like. They are designed and put on the menu for only one reason: to create hunger in the person ordering. It's like Pavlov's dogs, you hear the word juicy or tender and you start salivating immediately. By being aware of what restaurants are trying to do, you can gloss over the fancy words designed to create hunger pangs and order the meal you originally intended.

5. "Chef Specials"

"Chef Specials" are typically anything but. Instead, they're often meals that make the restaurant the most money or include ingredients the restaurant is trying to get rid of. The meal descriptions are usually full of fancy words designed to make you order them without much thought. They typically have their own special section on the menu with special fonts and graphics designed to catch your attention. The next time you see "Chef Specials" when dining out, don't fall for the trap. Instead, only order them if you were planning on it when you walked in the door.

6. No Dollar Signs

According to a Cornell study, diners tend to spend more at restaurants that don't use dollar signs on their menus. Because of this, high-end restaurants will often leave the dollar sign off the menu completely. Their thought process is that diners will be less likely to think about their own financial situation if the menu doesn't have dollar signs plastered all over it.

Also, expensive restaurants will only use whole numbers for prices. For example, it could be a 29 or it could be a 14, in either case they want to remove the idea of real money from the situation. Thus you won't see any decimals, cents, or dollar signs on the menu. Be sure to consider what your meal total will be in "real" dollars before you place an order.

7. Associate a Meal With a Brand

Whether it's the Jack Daniel's BBQ sauce at TGIF's, or Doritos taco shells at Taco Bell, tying a brand-name to a meal (referred to as "co-branding") often gives restaurants the green light to charge you more. Don't fall for the mind game and instead look for cheaper alternatives on the menu that are almost identical.

8. Top Right Menu Trick

According to William Poundstone, author of Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It), diners tend to look at the top right corner of the menu first. This might seem a bit counterintuitive as we read from left to right, but Poundstone says this is where you'll most often find the restaurant's most profitable items. Thus, many restaurants will make this menu real estate stand out by using larger font, eye-catching boxes, and clever wording.

9. Vague Sizing

Many restaurants offer a half sandwich, or a half salad. Have you ever wondered just how big a "half" order is and which one you should order? Most restaurants price their full salad or sandwich so it appears to be a better deal. But the truth of the matter is most half salads and sandwiches are way over half as big as a "full" and are often the better value as you'll probably have no waste. Be sure to ask how big a half order is before ordering as it'll often be the way to go unless you're really hungry and can finish the larger "full" portion. (See also: 12 Ways Restaurants Trick You Into Spending More)

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This article is from Kyle James of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

12 Surprising Things You Can Have Delivered

Mikey Rox — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 11:00:12 +0000

Humans are creatures of habit. We're also creatures of convenience, if only evidenced by the growing number of things we can have delivered right to our doors these days. Sure, Amazon helped usher in a new age of get-anything-quick, but more and more retailers are starting to provide privatized delivery services for everything from ski equipment to new cars.

What can you get your hands on in flash? Take a look at these 12 items you can have delivered today that you couldn't just a few years ago. (See also: 21 Fresh Food Delivery Services That Can Save You Big)

1. Ski Equipment

Winter weather threatening your holiday vacay? Make the most of the snow by having ski equipment delivered to your hotel or wherever you're staying close to 35 ski resorts in North America. Ski Butlers' service includes a personalized fitting by a technician, free pickup on equipment on the final rental day, and any required on-mountain adjustments. The service helps skiers and boarders avoid long lines at the ski shop plus save on shipping from the original location to the destination — not to mention the hassle of finding ski shaped boxes.

2. Printer Ink

Save yourself a trip to your local office-supply store by having ink delivered when you're running low. That's right — HP Instant Ink allows your printer to order cartridges when you're running low, so you don't even have to remember to do it yourself! Plans start at $2.99 per month with savings of up to 50% on the actual cartridges.

3. Kiteboarding Equipment

If you're an extreme-sports enthusiast, you'll be happy to know that you can rent and have delivered kiteboarding kites anywhere in the United States from Demo a Kite. The service offers a wide range of kits, allowing users to try out different brands, with the option to choose how much time you'd like to rent the kites. When the rental period is over, ship it back for free in the box provided.

4. Your Favorite Chain Restaurant Foods

Pizza delivery has been around for, like, ever (okay, since the early 1960s when Domino's made it popular), but until recently we haven't been able to get our other favorite fast and chain-restaurants foods delivered. That's all starting to change with services like DoorDash, a third-party service that delivers food from your favorite restaurants, like California Pizza Kitchen, Cheesecake Factory, and (for hangover Saturdays) McDonald's. The service promises that your order will arrive in 45 minutes or less, though its availability is severely limited and growth has experienced a few road bumps. Similar services include Postmates and Instacart, which also will deliver items from other local retailers and grocery stores — not just restaurants.

5. A New Car

Want to avoid that sleazy car salesman in his polyester suit? In that case, you may want to check out NowCar.com, a site that allows users to buy a new car online and have it delivered to their homes for free.

"We officially launched in Sept. 2015, so we are a relatively new service," says Chloe Lykes, NowCar.com's content manager. "NowCar allows a user to complete the entire car shopping, comparing and buying (finance, lease, or cash sales) process of a new car online. And, once completed, the car is delivered to their home, for free. Since buying a car has many facets, much of NowCar's software development stems from a combination of algorithms that make all types of various scenarios possible."

6. Alcohol

When wild-and-wacky blizzards blow through — and your backup of reserve booze is compromised (which means it probably time to panic!) — Drizly will come to the rescue. Delivered to your door within an hour (that's the goal, but maybe cut 'em some slack if there's a snow squall outside your door), this service will bring over your favorite wine, beer, or liquor — with no markups — in a growing number of cities that currently include Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Baltimore, NYC, St. Louis, D.C., L.A., and several others.

7. Condoms

Safe sex is the best sex, period. If you have an enviable bedroom life and, thus, generally need to keep your condom stash replenished, Rubber Club, a monthly subscription service that sends your favorite brand of condoms straight to you, might be up your alley. Or, ya know, if things are getting hot and heavy with your lover boy or girl at home (in San Francisco or Brooklyn; sorry rest of the world) and you realize you're fresh out, hop online and order a 12-pack for one-hour delivery from L. condoms. Just... no high-fiving the delivery guy.

8. Chicken Eggs... That Will Hatch!

When I was researching this piece for some of the strange things you can have delivered, this came up — and it's legit. Not only can you order chicken eggs that you can incubate to the point of hatching, but you can raise an entire farm full of fowl with other available eggs that will eventually produce ducklings, goslings, pheasants, turkeys, quail, and more.

9. Laundry and Dry Cleaning Service

If you're like me and you drop off your dry cleaning and tend to forget it for weeks, services like Washio, which offers premium dry cleaning and laundry delivery, could be a godsend. The wash-and-fold component seems pretty competitive from what I've seen — $1.99 per pound — but some of the dry cleaning rates, like $4.99 for a T-shirt and $5.99 for a sweater, are a bit questionable. Though they do balance out with more reasonable rates for other items, including $8.99 jackets and $11.99 two-piece suits. The service will pick up your garments and bring them pack for an additional delivery fee in cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, and a few others.

10. Massages

When you're too achy to move, order a masseur from Soothe that will bring everything you need to relax and detox with a legit rubdown right to your home. Soothe helps pair five-star therapists — every available masseur is licensed, background-checked, and thoroughly vetted — with weekend warriors and serenity seekers seven days a week from 9 a.m. to midnight, including holidays. You can have your masseur in one hour or schedule in advance, and no cash is exchanged as gratuity is built into the online fee when you book.

11. Women's Hygiene Products

Listen, I'm not a lady, and I'm not faced with lady issues often (luckily I'm married to a dude), so I'm just going to say that if going to the supermarket to buy women's hygiene products (I hope that's what I'm allowed to call them) makes you uncomfortable, there's a service that makes the whole process quick, easy, and discreet. Plus, you'll help someone else at the same time.

"Each box [of feminine products] is customizable, and for every box she receives a box goes to a woman in need," says Aunt Flow founder Claire Coder. "The buy-one-give-one model for basic sanitary products is changing lives."

12. Puppies!

Out all the cool and strange things you can have delivered these days, nothing beats a puppy! For a "puppy playtime" fee of $30, Uber has tested the waters of doggy delivery — that is, bringing cute-and-cuddly pups (and their handlers) to those who need a pick-me-up. It recently launched the limited-time promotion with Discovery Communications across several cities, including New York and Chicago.

The puppies that were part of the promo also were available for adoption. Keep an eye out for these kind of exciting opportunities more often from ride-sharing services, which have been taking advantage of cool opportunities with other brand partners, like the meme site Cheezburger and retaile UglyChristmasSweater.com, the latter of which offered free sweaters via Uber delivered this past holiday season.

Anything else you can now have delivered? Let us know in the comments!

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This article is from Mikey Rox of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

How to Stop the Takeout Meal Cycle and Save

Ashley Marcin — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 11:00:11 +0000

Whether you're trying to lean your budget or your waistline this year, eating too many meals out is a common offender. In fact, CNN recently reported that the average dinner at a non-chain restaurant comes in at a staggering 1,200 calories. While prices can range wildly depending on the eatery, the solution for better physical and financial health may be as simple as cooking more meals at home.

My family decided to embark on a challenge and stop dining out last month. We survived and have a stack of cash to show for it. Yes! We estimate we saved around $75 (conservatively) each week by skipping takeout and getting better with our meal planning. About $50 of this money, probably more, came from shunning restaurants and $25 is what we shaved off each week's grocery bill, all while making enough food for hearty breakfasts, lunches, and dinners — seven days each week.

Your results with this type of challenge will vary depending on how much you eat out, the cost of living in your area, and your creativity with using leftovers. Regardless, here are some tips that can help anyone to stop the takeout cycle today and save big. (See also: Try These 6 Money-Saving Challenges Now)

Examine Your Habits

Get honest with yourself about your eating and restaurant habits. When we wrote it out, we realized we were grabbing takeout pizza on Friday night, scouting out brunch or lunch on Saturday or Sunday, and sneaking in at least another meal out every week. I say we were spending $50, but I'm sure the amount was closer to $75 at the rate we were going.

Beyond that, we had a huge problem with food waste. I found myself tossing rotten fruits and veggies before our weekly grocery trip. We had expired cartons of yogurt nearly full and long-forgotten bags of whatever else going stale. The weirdest part? Our grocery bill was higher than ever. In better days, we tried to stick to around $80 to $100 for a family of three, but we were climbing at least $25 higher than that amount, all while feeling like we never had ideas for dinner. (See also: 10 Fruits and Veggies That Stay Fresh a Month or Longer)

After facing the hard truth, it became crystal clear that we needed to put more effort into planning and preparing our meals to save money and create less waste.

Embrace the Plan

Meal planning has been the key to our success, and it hasn't taken much effort. Every week before shopping, I take stock of what we have in the fridge, freezer, and pantry. It sounds like a big job, but it probably takes five or 10 minutes. I figure out what meals we can make with those items first. Some of the ideas come from memory. Other times, I use sites like Supercook to help with my creativity.

Feeling intimidated? It helps to stick to basic breakfasts (oatmeal, fruit, yogurt, cereal, etc.), easy lunches (sandwiches, salads, and other things that can be made in bulk), and use tools like a slow cooker to make simmering satisfying dinners a breeze. We even do some bulk cooking to help when we're in a pinch. Example: I made a huge batch of freezer veggie burgers that we can grab on busy nights.

Shop Smart

After I account for all the leftover foods, I look up recipes or write down old favorites for the other nights in the week. What results is an awesomely organized grocery list. At the store, we only buy what we need, nothing additional. That's how food waste is made! And I'll tell you what, there's nothing more satisfying than ending the week with a near-empty fridge.

We also found when we changed what day of the week we shop, we felt less compelled to grab takeout. For us, this meant heading to the store on Friday nights so our cabinets were packed with lots of exciting foods for the weekend. We had been shopping on Mondays, and with little in our reserves — that's when we'd venture out to takeout town. Now, making our meals and enjoying food together has even become one of our favorite sources of frugal entertainment.

Start Small

Does cooking absolutely everything at home sound too overwhelming? I admit, I have a high tolerance for being in the kitchen. If you don't — start small. You can get great results by replacing just one of your meals out each week. Maybe you can start by packing a lunch instead of buying out. Replacing your morning coffee and muffin habit with a homemade variety. Look for any and all opportunities and add on from there.

If I had to choose just one, I would have started with our pizza takeout night. Making pizza at home doesn't take much skill. A plain pie at the place down the street costs around $14. To make dough ($1 for flour, yeast, and water) and top with sauce ($0.99 a jar) and cheese ($2.99 for a two-cup bag)? Well, that's more like $5 if you stick to the basics. (See also: This Is How You Make Restaurant-Quality Pizza at Home)

Resist Temptation

There were some tricky moments we encountered along the way. For example, our friends came down to visit and asked us if we wanted to buzz out to get some dinner with them randomly one afternoon. I felt paralyzed and slightly embarrassed, but I told them the truth: We'd love to get together, I shared, but we have some big budget goals this year, and eating out doesn't fit into the puzzle right now. Plus, we had already started cooking dinner.

Guess what? It was no biggie. They came over to our place, we hung out for several hours, and they even told us our Crock-Pot dinner smelled amazing. For us, temptation usually comes when we're lazy about planning or when we get social pressure. We know this now. Your own triggers might be different. Be aware of them. Be honest about your goals. And get cooking.

Did you break your takeout cyclc? What worked for you?

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This article is from Ashley Marcin of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Are You Wasting $300,000 on Lunch?

Claire Millard — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 10:30:24 +0000

It seems obvious that a serious handbag habit, or a penchant for champagne might damage your finances. But lunch? Seriously? Afraid so.

I know, I know. Lunch is hardly an extravagance. We all need to eat, and picking up something to take out is a far easier option than preparing something at home.

But did you ever really consider the long-term costs? Although the small daily outlay on a restaurant or cafeteria lunch (not to mention coffees, sodas, and snacks) may seem insignificant, it adds up over time. If you're like the average American office worker, you could be spending about $3,000 on lunch and coffee this year. Just imagine how that mounts up over a whole working lifetime.

Ouch.

But turn this on its head, and there is some really good news. Bringing in your own lunch to work could save you so much money, you could take a vacation, save for a new car — or even knock years off your planned retirement date. Put down the double skinny caramel latte, and read on to check out how.

1. Crunching the Numbers

According to survey findings, 82% of working Americans spend at least $20 a week on coffee, and no fewer than 89% spend at least $35 every week on lunch. That works out to at least $57.49 per week. So, let's take an average Joe example:

Spending $57.49 a week on lunch and coffees, for 50 weeks in a year, means you're handing over $2,874.50 to eat an unsatisfactory (and probably unhealthy) meal at your desk daily. And if you spend more than $11 or so per day on lunch and coffee (as many of us are guilty of doing), that figure increases rapidly.

What better use could you be putting that money to?

2. The Beauty of Compound Interest

You're reading a personal finance blog — so you probably already know that compound interest is your friend. Interest earned on an initial deposit is added into the overall sum held, meaning you get interest paid on interest already accrued. The net result is that small sums of money, over a long period of time, can grow. And grow. And grow. It's a personal finance nerd's dream.

This effect is shown even in a relatively conservative — but slow and steady — account that will give you a 1% return on your cash (and don't forget that interest rates will fluctuate and are likely to rise at times over the course of your working life). With compound interest, and time, even a small regular deposit can grow to something worth having. The longer you squirrel it away, the bigger it gets — and remember, in the case of saved lunch money, this was cash you hadn't counted on having. You should not miss it.

For example: If, instead of buying lunch — for this year only — you invest the $2,874.48 saved in a skimpy 1% interest savings account, it could become a "happy retirement" holiday once you get to the point of ditching work, turning into $3,874.85 over the course of 30 years. Just by sitting there! Putting the same amount of cash aside into a vehicle that mirrors the S&P 500 over 30 years, based on a historic average return of 7%, your savings would turn into $23,409. Of course, additional contributions will lead to even greater gains.

3. How to Retire — Effortlessly

Okay, 30 years is a long time, and the idea of sacrificing your convenient sandwich for something that far hence might not sound so appealing. But how about if quitting your sandwich habit could actually bring your anticipated retirement forward?

Don't shout about it, but it can. Here are the sums:

By continuing with your "average" annual savings from ditching takeout lunches over the course of 30 years, your pot, even at a low 1% yield, would become just over $100,000 thanks to the magic of time and compound interest. If you learn enough about investing to achieve that historic average of 7% from the S&P 500 over that period, you could accumulate an astonishing $312,362. Enough to change your retirement plans?

By simply squirreling away that tiny amount of lunch money every day, you can either increase your total lifetime retirement savings by hundreds of thousands of dollars, or retire years sooner, altogether.

Does giving up that sandwich or passing up Chinese takeout still sound like such a sacrifice?

This article is from Claire Millard of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Best Money Tips: Save on Takeout

Ashley Jacobs — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 11:24:10 +0000

Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips Roundup! Today we found some awesome articles on ways to save on takeout, commonly overlooked tax breaks, and how to make your dreams a reality.